Inspired by teachers, RIT grad opens music studio to teach others

Renaaron Ellis is helping his red-team cybersecurity peers to learn how recognize and prevent black hat temptations. His RenCTF program is a gamified security workforce development program that uses team-based activities to help students to understand how hacks and other online exploits are conducted and how to prevent or mediate these exploits. The computer engineering undergraduate has been focused on building workforce development security tools  this academic year as part of a larger National Science Foundation research project with Michael Zuzak, assistant professor in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, to develop workforce development security tools. Ellis has taken coursework and added web design and interactive hardware onto a platform that expands the traditional Capture the Flag and Hack the Box security exercises. Ellis, a third-year student in the secure systems option of computer engineering from East Stroudsburg, Pa., talked about the project, how it came about, and why it is needed. What is RenCTF and how does it work? RenCTF stands for my name, Ren, and Capture the Flag. It is a gamified platform with interactive challenges—easy, intermediate, and difficult—that programmers and security officials in the world of offensive testing experience in terms of trying to get into a network system. We built the app ourselves; there’s no templates that we used. It was an original idea. There are some common challenges on the internet, but by gamifying them, turning them into to something that can be played throughout the department, Dr. Zuzak wanted to have something for the students in computer engineering. What did it take to build this system? And what is the status of this project? The site is live with multiple players, and there is a LED board located in the department that shows team status. Before I worked on this project, I had done a decent amount of hardware projects. But the web application side, that was something I had no idea how to do at all. Over the summer, it was – what is a website? How do I host one? How do I build one? What are the languages, the frameworks? I learned a bunch of applications. That process of stacking on what you know already and what you don’t know will become shorter and shorter as you build your repertoire. What are red-team instructions and black-hat temptations? “Red-team instructions” or red-teaming is specifically in a simulated environment where there is no actual risk of compromising real sensitive information. It is basically the process of breaking into something, or reverse engineering something to try to get past some barrier that another team puts up. “Black-hat temptations” or black-hat attackers refer to unethical hacking practices aimed at exploiting systems in a non-simulated real environment. They have the incentive of getting into a program or application toward something valuable that they want to get to or look at. And our product puts this in a facilitated space where we can test those challenges. We can see what it is like to be on the other side and help defend against it. Why are systems such as this important? We started working on this December 2023. Dr. Zuzak was showing me some of the hardware he had in his office and there is a little circuit board, an ESP32, and I thought, I can do something with this. I took it home that night and came up with a prototype and brought it back. He was like, ‘Wow this is pretty close to what I had envisioned.’ By November 2024 we had a formal project underway. There’s a lot that, especially with developments of AI and everything increasingly online, when it comes to computer engineering, it is important to understand how to make it safe and to understand how an adversary would think about getting behind what you have made. It is important to see it from both ends, because if you don’t, then we have situations where people are just writing erroneous code that leads to security issues. This project is important to me, not only because I think the mission we have with it is one that I agree with and like. What is next? This was my first project that I did where I was able to apply everything that I’ve learned on smaller projects over the years—doing PCP design and 3D printing, learning web development, using Raspberry Pi and Arduinos. I took Dr. Z’s hardware security class last semester; it was the best class I’ve taken. It was fun. Everything that I learned in that class has fundamentally changed the way that I design things and how I would protect information. I want to work in the security area. I don’t know if that will come through industry or research. I’m glad that I was able to realize that this is definitely the field I want to be in.

When she first dove into the world of startups, RIT Croatia student Antonia Kurtovic had a community of people that took her ideas seriously and were willing to help her. Now, the third-year global business management student has been able to pay it forward with numerous endeavors to help teenagers get their ideas off the ground. “I know how it is at the beginning when you don’t know anything and you just need to get started,” said Kurtovic. “I would like to enable these opportunities for others. It’s pretty cool to help other people create cool things.” Kurtovic was first introduced to the world of entrepreneurship when she was 19. She reached out to a high school friend and the two started developing a mental health app for teenagers. The duo learned valuable skills about how to develop a startup through this process, and won multiple pitch competitions. That skillset led to the idea of hosting a startup conference for local teens. Given the daunting task of pulling off a conference with only a month’s time to plan, Kurtovic got it done. In March 2024, nearly 100 high school students came to the Zagreb campus on a Saturday morning to learn from RIT students and faculty about entrepreneurship. Kurtovic also planned and executed a startup academy in April 2024, which provided a longer program for young students interested in the field. A second conference was held in October 2024 and the academy is set to run again in June 2025.  For her efforts, Kurtovic was named to the Top 30 Under 30 in the industry by the VIDI Awards. The accolade recognizes young individuals who exhibit exceptional potential and achievements across various fields, including technology, science, and entrepreneurship. She also won second place at the International Project Management Association Project Management Awards 2024 in the Best Young Project Manager category. While taking classes and continuing her work with the conference and the academy, Kurtovic would also like to give some other startup ideas a try in the future. When asked what advice she would give to fellow students who had a big ideas, she answered with four things: be passionate, be open, be resilient, and be kind. “If you’re passionate about your idea, you’re going to make other people excited about it,” said Kurtovic. “Be open to feedback, ask questions, and build a network of great value. There are going to be a lot of times when you fail, but you have to get up and continue. Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes we repeat the same mistake before we learn. That’s okay, that’s part of the process.”

Rochester Institute of Technology will confer honorary degrees to four outstanding individuals at its 2025 commencement ceremony on Friday, May 9. The honorees will be recognized alongside more than 5,000 graduates, including those from RIT’s international campuses. Earning honorary degrees are: ‌   Astro Teller Astro Teller, a renowned entrepreneur, engineer, scientist, and “Captain of Moonshots” at X Google’s Factory and innovation lab, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science. In addition to receiving an honorary degree, Teller will also deliver the keynote address for the university’s Academic Convocation ceremony starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 9, in the Gordon Field House and Activities Center. Teller, who is widely recognized for his leadership in technological innovation, oversees X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory designed to help tackle the world’s most difficult problems with bold solutions. Some of X’s best known moonshot technologies include Waymo autonomous cars, Verily life sciences, Google Brain, and Wing delivery drones. Before joining Google/Alphabet, Teller was the co-founding CEO of several companies including Cerebellum Capital Inc., an investment management firm whose investments are continuously designed, executed, and improved by a software system based on techniques from statistical machine learning; BodyMedia Inc., a wearable body monitoring company; and SANDbOX Advanced Development, an advanced development technology incubator. Through his work as a scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, Teller holds many U.S. and international patents related to hardware and software technology. Teller is also a novelist and screenwriter. ‌   Gregory L. Robinson Gregory L. Robinson, engineer and former director of the James Webb Space Telescope, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science. Robinson will also deliver the keynote address at the doctoral hooding ceremony on May 9, starting at 1:30 p.m., in the Gene Polisseni Center. A distinguished figure in the field of space exploration and engineering, Robinson is renowned for his contributions to NASA’s groundbreaking missions and his expertise in astrophysics. After joining NASA in 1989, he became a manager at the Goddard Space Flight Center. As the John H. Glenn Research Center’s deputy director, Robinson oversaw 114 missions and helped guide research initiatives, collaborations, and partnerships with industry, academia, and other NASA centers. As director of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), he was pivotal in bringing the project back on track. Under his leadership, the JWST successfully launched in 2021, reaching its destination in space and fulfilling the vision of a cutting-edge space observatory capable of capturing unprecedented images of distant galaxies, stars, and planets. These contributions have cemented his legacy as a leader who played an instrumental role in the success of one of the most ambitious scientific missions of the 21st century. Robinson has earned accolades including the 2022 Federal Employee of the Year Medal and the NASA Presidential Rank Distinguished Executive award. He also was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022 and to the Ebony 2022 Power 100 list. He has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Virginia Union University, a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Howard University, and an MBA from Averett College. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University. ‌   Nadine Strossen Nadine Strossen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. A prominent legal scholar, civil liberties advocate, and author, Strossen has dedicated her career to championing freedom of speech, civil rights, and social justice. Strossen received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1975 before joining the faculty of New York Law School. As the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and Senior Fellow with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Strossen imparts her knowledge of constitutional law and civil liberties, fostering a deep appreciation for democratic values among audience members for her 200 annual public presentations. Strossen served as the host and project consultant for Free to Speak, a three-part public TV series that first aired in 2023. In 2018, she published her book HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech and, in 2023, published Free Speech, What Everyone Needs to Know®. Strossen has twice been named one of America’s “100 Most Influential Lawyers” by the National Law Journal. In 2023, the National Coalition Against Censorship honored her with its Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech. She serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and University of Austin. ‌   Govindasamy Viswanathan Govindasamy Viswanathan, founder and chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), will receive an Honorary Doctor of Pedagogy. With over 40 years of experience in educational administration, Viswanathan has transformed Indian higher education by creating the leading STEM-focused, private foundation university in India. Established in 1984, VIT enrolls more than 100,000 students across six campuses. Born in a remote village in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Viswanathan served in parliament, in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, and as Minister for Food, Co-operation, and Dairy Development. He earned a master’s degree in economics from Loyola College, Chennai, a law degree from Madras University, and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He received an honorary doctorate from West Virginia University in 2009 in recognition of his exemplary contributions to the fields of politics, education, and societal development. Viswanathan is the past president and chief patron of the Education Promotion Society for India, and he has received numerous national and international awards. His societal initiatives have had a profound impact on underserved communities. These initiatives include The Centre for Sustainable Rural Development and Research Studies; Skill Development Programmes; Support the Advancement of Rural Students; and G.V. School Development Programme. In 2012, Viswanathan established the Universal Higher Education Trust to help underprivileged students of Vellore District to pursue higher education, benefitting as many as 9,400 students so far. In addition to his contributions to STEM education, he has made numerous contributions to the expansion of Tamil, a South Indian language, through his philanthropy and scholarship.

A new study from Rochester Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University experts is challenging a widely held belief about the media—that local news outlets have become more critical of the police in recent years. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), used advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to analyze a decade’s worth of local news reporting on policing across the United States. The team applied large language models to a dataset of more than 250,000 news articles from 10 politically diverse cities. The researchers found that criticism of the police in local media has remained largely stable from 2013 to 2023. There was also little difference between reporting in conservative and liberal cities—meaning local outlets have not tailored their reporting on the police to the politics of their audience. While spikes in police criticism did occur after high-profile incidents, such as the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the study found that these increases were temporary and did not result in a long-term shift toward more critical reporting. In fact, since 2020, local reporting supporting the idea that police are effective has slightly increased. “The data told a different story than we expected,” said Ashique KhudaBukhsh, an assistant professor in RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences and co-author of the study. “Local journalism on policing has been stable, but how people read the news depends on their political preference. The polarization is less on the news writers and more about the readers.” Perception vs reality in news consumption This study builds on previous research by the team, which examined how major national news networks—MSNBC, Fox, and CNN—covered police issues. That paper found that cable news tends to steer coverage to align with audience expectations, creating more partisan narratives. For this study, the researchers started by conducting a survey. They found that a majority of people—regardless of political affiliation—believe that news reporting on the police has become more critical over time. However, the researchers saw hardly any empirical evidence on how coverage of the police has changed over time. “Our goal was to look at a broad time horizon—10 years—instead of focusing on a single moment in history,” said KhudaBukhsh. ‌   The plot shows how readers in different cities view news stories about police. Democratic-leaning cities included Houston, Denver, Tampa, Nashville, and Pittsburgh. Republican-leaning cities included Dallas-Fort Worth, San Diego, Jacksonville, Oklahoma City, and Omaha. To ensure balance, the study gathered news from 209 outlets in comparable cities—five in Republican-leaning areas and five in Democratic-leaning areas. Researchers applied natural language processing methods to analyze 1.3 million excerpts from local newspapers and TV stations. A key element was ensuring that diverse perspectives were incorporated into the AI system. About 500 real Republicans, Independents, and Democrats read a sampling of police news excerpts to evaluate whether coverage supported or contradicted two key statements—“The police protect citizens” and “The police are racist.” Those human judgments helped train and fine-tune the large language models that measured the full police news data set. “When building AI systems, it’s critical to include a diversity of viewpoints,” KhudaBukhsh explained. “If we only allow one political perspective to annotate the data, we risk creating an unbalanced evaluation with bias. Every data point in our annotation study was reviewed by a Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent.” This collaboration between RIT and Carnegie Mellon highlights how AI can be used to study large-scale media trends. ‌   The researchers trained an AI model to predict how different readers would evaluate news sentences about police. The plot shows the percentage of sentences—each month—that were predicted as supporting and contradicting the hypotheses, “Police protect us” (left) and “Police are racist” (right). A few high-profile news stories are identified by spikes on the plot. “This is the best time to do this kind of research because the AI landscape has changed and we have the tools and data to ask deeper questions,” said Sujan Dutta, a computing and information sciences Ph.D. student at RIT and co-author. “The biggest challenge was introducing the notion of political perspectives into AI and making a very comprehensive and balanced design that is representative of different viewpoints.” The study’s findings suggest that local journalists covering local issues don’t fall prey to the type of partisanship seen at the national level. The researchers hope their work offers a clearer, data-driven understanding of how policing is covered in local news. “Media informs a great deal about our current state of the world,” said KhudaBukhsh. “By better understanding how sources cover the news and people consume it, we can work toward bridging the polarizing gap that we have today.”

Student’s access to state-of-the-art facilities and software, impressive faculty with industry experience, and a wealth of opportunities for hands-on learning before graduation has earned RIT’s School of Film and Animation (SOFA) more recognition as one of the top animation schools in the nation. Animation Career Review, a leading online resource for aspiring animation and game design professionals, placed RIT 12th in the publication’s Top 50 Animation Schools and Colleges in the U.S. for 2025. This is a leap ahead for the school after placing 16th in the publication’s 2024 rankings. ‌ Sophie Proe In an explanation of its rankings, Animation Career Review emphasized RIT students’ access to classrooms and labs outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment and the latest industry software. Additionally, in separate ranking lists released by Animation Career Review, RIT placed 7th on the Top 25 Animation Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Degree Programs list; 11th on the Top 40 Private Animation Schools and Colleges in the U.S. list; 5th on the Top 25 Animation Schools and Colleges on the East Coast list; and 11th on the Top 50 Animation BFA Degree Programs list. Shanti Thakur, director of SOFA, said the 2024-2025 academic year has been exciting for the school. In addition to the Animation Career Review rankings, SOFA was recognized as a top film school by The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap for the first time in the school’s history. “Over the last four years, SOFA has advanced incredibly. New cutting-edge animation facilities, new faculty hires, award-winning student work, and new study away opportunities both nationally and internationally have translated to tremendous recognition for our school. I look forward to SOFA’s continued success,” said Thakur. In preparing its 2025 rankings, Animation Career Review considered over 200 U.S. schools that offer programs geared toward animation. The publication considers academic reputation; admission selectivity; employment data; the program’s depth, breadth, and faculty; value as it relates to tuition; graduation rate; and retention rate when assembling the list of schools. Animation Career Review also cited RIT’s designation as a Center of Excellence by Toon Boon, the university’s history with the Coca-Cola Refreshing Films program, the RIT in LA study away program, and RIT’s participation in Creative Industry Days when granting the rankings. Alumni job placements at major studios such as DreamWorks, Sony, Disney Animation Studios, Electronic Arts (EA), Nickelodeon, and Dolby also influenced the ranking. Go to the School of Film and Animation website for more details about its program offerings.

A faculty member who uses his business background of seeing technology go from concept to production and a graduating engineering student who enjoys helping others and wants to develop medical devices have been named this year’s RIT Alfred Davis Award winners. Don Pophal, a senior lecturer and lead guide in the Multidisciplinary Senior Design Capstone Program in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, will receive the 2025  Four Presidents Distinguished Public Service Award. Christian Waldschmidt, a fifth-year biomedical engineering major with a mechanical engineering minor, will receive the Bruce R. James ’64 Distinguished Service Award. They will be recognized at a ceremony at 4 p.m. April 8 in RIT’s University Gallery, followed by a reception at 5 p.m. The ceremony is free and open to all. A native of Williamsport, Pa., Pophal held various leadership positions at Eastman Kodak Company from 1981 to 2006, helping oversee more than a billion dollars in digital imaging technology revenue generation go from the research lab to commercialization. He received a degree in 1982 from RIT in photographic sciences and instrumentation and taught part time at RIT in the 1980s. In 2018, Pophal returned to RIT as an adjunct professor to teach students in multiple fields, including serving as an innovation coach in the Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was soon hired full-time. “I wanted to put a capstone on my career and come back to RIT to teach,” Pophal said. “I can have more of an impact working with young people and teaching them how to solve problems. I try not to tell them what to think, I want to teach them how to think, how to solve problems. These young persons at RIT now are our futures. We really need them right now.” Pophal mainly works with fifth-year students who will graduate after their capstone projects. He calls them “phenomenally smart. I have no concern about their technical skills, but what I like to do is teach them how to work within a team, and the use of best practices on how to commercialize these new products. These new minds are untethered, and they are way smarter than we are. They come out with solutions we would never have thought of.” Pophal served on the board of directors for the former Lakeside Health Systems in Brockport, N.Y., until 2008. In the town of Sweden, where he lives, he was asked to work with the town’s attorney to help write laws on solar power, battery storage, and wind farms. The Davis Award comes with $2,500 which will be donated to a charity of the recipient’s choice. Pophal says the donation will go to the Seymour Library in Brockport, where he serves on the board of trustees and is chairman of facilities, overseeing an extensive internal remodeling. In his spare time, Pophal enjoys camping and taking his recreation vehicle along the east coast, particularly to his native Pennsylvania. He lives with Mary Ellen Warner, his partner for more than 20 years, and their two dogs, Emma, a golden retriever, and Gabby, a Yorkshire terrier. Helping others and the community Christian Waldschmidt thought he’d like to be an engineer when he was a youngster growing up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Allison Park, Pa. “I always liked playing with Legos and anytime my dad was fixing things in the garage, I would see if I could help,” he said. “In high school, I liked physics and math and realized engineering was right for me.” His focus turned to biomedical engineering after working in a pharmacy when he was in high school. While at RIT, he completed a co-op with Thermo Fisher, a Rochester-area company that designs medical equipment and pharmaceutical devices. After graduation in May, he’ll work at a co-op at a medical manufacturer in Pittsburgh which he hopes will lead to a full-time job there. “I like helping people,” Waldschmidt said. “I feel that applying my skillset may help improve lives and even save lives. There’s a big need in the health care industry right now to be more efficient.” He has volunteered countless hours on many projects to help others on and off campus, yet he said he feels a bit dumbfounded winning this award because he knows there are so many other students who also volunteer in the community. He’s nailed wooden frames with other RIT students during the annual Framing Frenzy event for Habitat for Humanity, and often spent weekends as a building supervisor overseeing student efforts on-site in Batavia, N.Y. where Habitat homes were being erected. Along with his award comes $1,000 to designate to a charity of his choice. “I’m very glad I get to send money to Habitat for Humanity because I worked for them since freshman year. They helped me grow as a person and it makes me happy that I can help them,” he said. Maintaining a 3.76 GPA and being a member of RIT’s Biomedical Engineering Society, he enjoys being active, “nerdy,” playing board games, hiking, playing soccer, disc golf, and working with his 3D printer. “My first semester at RIT, I wanted to join everything,” he said. “There were just so many opportunities that were presented. That was really helpful for me and my time while at RIT, the people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve made have driven me to be the person I am now.” He’s a member of Pi Kappa Phi and Phi Sigma Pi fraternities and helped raise more than $1,000 for the American Cancer Society during RIT’s Relay for Life. He also helped organize an RIT campus cleanup as well as a series of cleanups at an area Buddhist temple, and helped coordinate student volunteer efforts with residents of St. John’s nursing home in Rochester. And Waldschmidt spent a winter break with other RIT biomedical engineering students volunteering at a hospital in Guatemala to repair 58 medical devices, including monitors, ventilators, and infant incubators. “I grew up with a mindset of helping others,” he said. “My parents always felt showing kindness was a good virtue. I really want to show that if you lead by example, that will spread and help others share kindness as well.” About the awards: The Four Presidents Distinguished Public Service Award Fund was created in 2003 by RIT Vice President Emeritus Alfred L. Davis on the occasion of the 65th year of his association with RIT, to commemorate the dedication of the four RIT presidents - Mark Ellingson, Paul Miller, M. Richard Rose, and Albert Simone - with whom he worked, in their service to the Rochester community. The award also recognizes a current member of the faculty or staff who, through his/her public service, mirrors the lives of the four presidents, who have been not only outstanding professionals but also caring members of the community. In 2005 Davis established a companion student award to commemorate the outstanding service of RIT trustee Bruce R. James. The Bruce R. James ’64 Distinguished Public Service Award commemorates the public service of Bruce James, chairman emeritus of the RIT Board of Trustees recognizes an RIT student for exemplary public service in the community with hopes other students will engage in public service.